Knowledge: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
SophieHadifz (talk | contribs) |
i have changed a small mistake |
||
| (44 intermediate revisions by 30 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
[[File:Zhuangzi-Butterfly-Dream.jpg|thumb|Everyone in the world knows how to seek for knowledge that they do not have, but do not know how to find what they already know. ~ [[Zhuangzi]]]]
[[File:Sanzio 01 Plato Aristotle.jpg|thumb|All teaching and all intellectual learning come about from already existing knowledge. ~ [[Aristotle]]]]
'''[[w:Knowledge|Knowledge]]''' is what is known; the confident understanding of a subject, potentially with the ability to use it for a specific purpose. It is a familiarity with someone or something, which can include [[fact]]s, [[information]], descriptions, or skills acquired through [[experience]] or [[education]]. Knowledge can be acquired in many different ways and from many sources, including but not limited to perception, reason, memory, testimony, scientific inquiry, education, and practice. The philosophical study of knowledge is called epistemology.
== Quotes, ancient history ==
===Chinese===
* The Master said, "Yu, shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it; — this is knowledge."
** [[Confucius]] in ''The Analects'' 2:17, as translated by Arthur Waley
** Variant translation: "Yu, shall I teach you about knowledge? What you know, you know, what you don't know, you don't know. This is true knowledge".
* When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it; this is knowledge.
** [[Confucius]], ''Analects'', Book II, Chapter XVII. Cited in: ''Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations'' (1922), p. 419-23.
* I cannot look at something through someone else's eyes. I can only truly know something which I know.
** [[Zhuangzi]], ''[[w:Zhuangzi (book)|The Book of Chuang Tzu]]'', as translated by M. Palmer, et. al. (Penguin: 1996),p. 12
Line 12 ⟶ 19:
=== Greek ===
[[File:Socrates Louvre.jpg|thumb|As for me, all I know is that I know nothing ~ [[Socrates]]]]
* For knowing is spoken of in three ways: it may be either universal knowledge or knowledge proper to the matter in hand or actualising such knowledge; consequently three kinds of error also are possible.
** [[Aristotle]], ''Prior Analytics'' (67b 4), tr. by [[:w:Jonathan Barnes|Jonathan Barnes]] (1984/95)
Line 58 ⟶ 65:
=== Latin ===
* ''Prima [[wikt:sapientia|sapientiae]] clavis definitur, assidua scilicet seu frequens interrogatio … Dubitando enim ad inquisitionem venimus; inquirendo veritatem percipimus.''
** Constant and frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom … For through doubting we are led to inquire, and by inquiry we perceive the truth.
** [[Peter Abelard]] (1079–1142) ''[[w:Sic et Non|Sic et Non]]'', Prologus; translation from Frank Pierrepont Graves ''A History of Education During the Middle Ages and the Transition to Modern Times'' ([1918] 2005) p. 53.
Line 128 ⟶ 135:
=== [[Bible]] ===
[[File:Rainy-Clouds-On-Gili.jpg|thumb|Do you know how [[God]] controls the [[clouds]] and how he causes the [[lightning]] to flash from his cloud? Do you know how the [[cloud]]s float? These are the [[wonderful]] [[works]] of [[the One]] [[perfect]] in knowledge. ~ [[Book of Job]]]]
* Do you know how [[God]] controls the clouds and how he causes the [[light]]ning to flash from his cloud? Do you know how the [[cloud]]s float? These are the wonderful works of the One perfect in knowledge.
Line 172 ⟶ 179:
* Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge.
** [[Solomon]], Proverbs 12:1.
* Through wisdom is an house builded; and by understanding it is established: And by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
** Proverbs 24:3-4
* O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
Line 191 ⟶ 201:
* So high (above [[all]]) is God, the [[Sovereign]], the [[Truth]]. And, (O Muhammad), do not hasten with (recitation of) the Qur'an before its [[revelation]] is [[completed]] to you, and say, "My [[Lord]], increase me in knowledge."
** [[Quran]] 20:114
=== Early Christianity ===
Line 290 ⟶ 292:
* I find that even those that have sought knowledge for itself, and not for benefit, or ostentation, or any practicable enablement in the course of their life, have nevertheless propounded to themselves a wrong mark, namely, satisfaction, which men call truth, and not operation. For as in the courts and services of princes and states, it is a much easier matter to give satisfaction than to do the business; so in the inquiring of causes and reasons it is much easier to find out such causes as will satisfy the mind of man and quiet objections, than such causes as will direct him and give him light to new experiences and inventions.
** [[Francis Bacon]], ''Valerius Terminus: Of the Interpretation of Nature'', ''Works'', vol. 1, p. 87.
*Knowledge that stays at the tip of one's tongue<br>Can always be used and expressed by the learned.<br>The fool is deceived by what needs reference<br>To a teacher or text for support.
**Ballaladeva (or Ballalasena) in his 16th century classic, Bhoja-Prabandha, quoted from Balakrishna, S., Lessons from Hindu History in 10 Episodes (2020)
* Manners must adorn knowledge, and smooth its way through the world. Like a great rough diamond, it may do very well in a closet by way of curiosity, and also for its intrinsic value; but it will never be worn, nor shine, if it is not polished.
Line 318 ⟶ 323:
* And thou my minde aspire to higher things;<br>Grow rich in that which never taketh rust.
** Sir [[Philip Sidney]], ''Sonnet. Leave me, O Love.'' Quote reported in ''Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations'' (1922), p. 419-23.
* Sweet food of sweetly uttered knowledge.
Line 497 ⟶ 502:
=== 19th century ===
* Knowledge is, indeed, that which, next to [[virtue]], truly and essentially raises one man above another.
** [[Joseph Addison]], ''The Guardian'' (1713)
* Real knowledge, like every thing else of the highest value, is not to be obtained easily. It must be worked for, — studied for, — thought for, — and, more than all, it must be prayed for.
** [[Thomas Arnold]] (1795-1842). Quotes reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, ''Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers'' (1895). p. 364.
Line 546 ⟶ 555:
* The Doctrine of Knowledge, apart from all special and definite knowing, proceeds immediately upon Knowledge itself, in the essential unity in which it recognises Knowledge as existing; and it raises this question in the first place — How this Knowledge can come into being, and what it is in its inward and essential Nature? <br> The following must be apparent: — There is but One who is absolutely by and through himself, — namely, God; and God is not the mere dead conception to which we have thus given utterance, but he is in himself pure Life. He can neither change nor determine himself in aught within himself, nor become any other Being; for his Being contains within it all his Being and all possible Being, and neither within him nor out of him can any new Being arise.
** [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]] (1810) ''Outline of the Doctrine of Knowledge''. I.
* It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. When I have clarified and exhausted a subject, then I turn away from it, in order to go into darkness again; The never-satisfied man is so strange—if he has completed a structure, then it is not in order to dwell in it peacefully, but in order to begin another. I imagine the world conqueror must feel thus, who, after one kingdom is scarcely conquered, stretches out his arms again for others.
** [[Carl Friedrich Gauss]] (Sep 2, 1808) letter to {{w|János Bolyai}}, as quoted by {{w|G. Waldo Dunnington}}, ''Carl Friedrich Gauss: Titan of Science'' (2004 edition of 1995 first printing) [https://archive.org/details/carlfriedrichgau0000dunn/page/416/mode/1up p. 416.]
* The first step to self-knowledge is self-distrust. Nor can we attain to any kind of knowledge, except by a like process.
Line 590 ⟶ 602:
* To understand at all what life means, one must begin with Christian belief. And I think knowledge may be sorrow with a man unless he loves.
** [[William Mountford]] (1816–1885). Quote reported in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, ''Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers'' (1895). p. 364.
* The scientists take for granted that the education of the schools creates intelligence; very often it does no such thing. It creates a superficial appearance of knowledge indeed; but knowledge is like food, unless it be thoroughly assimilated when absorbed, and thoroughly digested, it can give no nourishment; it lies useless, a heavy and unleavened mass.
** [[Ouida]], {{cite book|chapter=Some Fallacies of Science (suggested by an 1885 address to the British Association at Aberdeen)|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/viewsopinions00ouidiala/page/n296/mode/2up|title=Views and Opinions|year=1895|title=Views and Opinions|pages=281–301}} (quote from pages 284–285)
* '''It is not in the [[books]] of the [[Philosophers]], but in the [[religious]] [[symbolism]] of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of [[Science]], and re-discover the [[Mysteries]] of Knowledge.'''
Line 623 ⟶ 638:
* We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that the savage has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter.
** [[Mark Twain]], ''[[w:A Tramp Abroad|A Tramp Abroad]]'' (1880).
* Man's knowledge, save before his fellow man,<br>Is ignorance—his widest wisdom folly.
** [[Theodore Watts-Dunton]], "Prophetic Pictures at Venice VII: New Year's Morning, 1867", in ''The Coming of Love and Other Poems'' (London: John Lane, 1897), p. 207.
* Knowledge, in truth, is the great sun in the firmament. Life and power are scattered with all its beams.
Line 641 ⟶ 659:
== Contemporary quotes ==
==== First half of the 20th century ====
[[File:GeorgTrakl.jpg|thumb|Knowledge comes only to those who despise [[happiness]]. ~ [[Georg Trakl]]]]
[[File:Albert Einstein photo 1920.jpg|thumb|[[Imagination]] is more important than knowledge. ~ [[Albert Einstein]]]]
* A man who knows how little he knows is well, a man who knows how much he knows is sick.
** [[Witter Bynner]], ''The Way of Life'' (1944).
Line 662 ⟶ 680:
*** Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.
*** [[Albert Einstein]] (1931) ''Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms'', p. 97.
* I want to know God's thoughts — the rest are mere details.
Line 689 ⟶ 704:
* Without love the acquisition of knowledge only increases confusion and leads to self-destruction.
** [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]], ''Education and the Significance of Life'' (1953), Harper, p. 47.
[[File:Charles Webster Leadbeater.014.jpg|thumb|There is a very real and imminent danger... which threatens us. The only thing that can prevent it is the diffusion of knowledge... nothing can ever be good for one which is against the interests of the whole. ~ [[Charles Webster Leadbeater]]]]
*Never was there a greater need for the diffusion of knowledge, for in the present ignorance of men there is a very real and imminent danger. We have in the immediate future the possibility of serious struggle; we have all the elements of a possible social upheaval, and we have no religion with sufficient hold upon the people to check what may develop into a wild and dangerous movement. As yet [[philosophy]] is the study of the very few only, and the science which has done so much for us, and has achieved so many triumphs, cannot stay the danger which threatens us. The only thing that can prevent it is the diffusion of knowledge, so that men shall understand what is really best for them and shall realize that nothing can ever be good for one which is against the interests of the whole. p. 333
**[[Charles Webster Leadbeater]], ''Some Glimpses of Occultism: Ancient and Modern'' (1903)
* A modern theory of knowledge which takes account of the relational as distinct from the merely relative character of all historical knowledge must start with the assumption that there are spheres of thought in which it is impossible to conceive of absolute truth existing independently of the values and position of the subject and unrelated to the social context.
** [[Karl Mannheim]] (1929) ''Ideology and Utopia''.
* If you want knowledge, you must take part in the practice of changing reality.
** [[Mao Zedong]], "On Practice" (1937)
* I hold all knowledge that is concerned with things that actually exist – all that is commonly called Science – to be of very slight value compared to the knowledge which, like philosophy and mathematics, is concerned with ideal and eternal objects, and is freed from this miserable world which God has made.
Line 718 ⟶ 739:
** [[Mark Twain]], ''Notebook'' (1908).
* Under the world view possessed by medieval scholars, the path of learning was a path of self-deprecation. … An opposite conception comes in with Bacon’s “knowledge is power.” If the aim of knowledge is domination, it is hardly to be supposed that the possessors of knowledge will be indifferent to their importance. On the contrary, they begin to swell; the seek triumphs in the material world (knowledge being meanwhile necessarily degraded to skills) which inflate their egotism and self-consideration. Such is a brief history of how knowledge passes from a means of spiritual redemption to a basis for intellectual pride.
** [[Richard Weaver]], ''Ideas Have Consequences'' (Chicago: 1948), p. 72
* “One only begins to comprehend when one begins to stop trying to know.”
** [[Henry Miller]], "An Open Letter to Surrealists Everywhere" (1939)
==== Second half of the 20th century ====
[[File:2016-07-04 - Paulo Freire no Portal EBC.jpg|thumb|Knowing, whatever its level, is not the act by which a subject transformed into an object docilely and passively accepts the contents others give or impose on him or her. Knowledge, on the contrary, necessitates the curious presence of subjects confronted with the world. It requires their transforming action on reality. It demands a constant searching. It implies invention and reinvention. It claims from each person a reflection on the very act of knowing. ~ [[Paulo Freire]]]]
[[File:Double slit x-ray simulation monochromatic blue-white.png|thumb|right|A very great deal more [[truth]] can become known than can be [[proven]]. ~ [[Richard Feynman]] ]]
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R0211-316, Dietrich Bonhoeffer mit Schülern.jpg|thumb|How wrong it is to use God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of our knowledge. If in fact the frontiers of knowledge are being pushed further and further back (and that is bound to be the case), then God is being pushed back with them, and is therefore continually in retreat. We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don’t know. ~ [[Dietrich Bonhoeffer]]]]
Line 763 ⟶ 787:
* '''A very great deal more [[truth]] can become known than can be [[proven]].'''
** [[Richard Feynman]], in his [http://nobelprize.org/physics/laureates/1965/feynman-lecture.html Nobel Lecture "The Development of the Space-Time View of Quantum Electrodynamics" (11 December 1965)]<!-- Apparently repeated by Feynman throughout his life. For example "A great deal more is known than has been proved." was attributed to Feynman by [[w:Michael_Berry_(physicist)|Michael Berry]], as quoted in John Derbyshire, ''Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics'' (2003) -->
* Knowing, whatever its level, is not the act by which a subject transformed into an object docilely and passively accepts the contents others give or impose on him or her. Knowledge, on the contrary, necessitates the curious presence of subjects confronted with the world. It requires their transforming action on reality. It demands a constant searching. It implies invention and reinvention. It claims from each person a reflection on the very act of knowing.
** [[Paulo Freire]], ''Extension or Communication'' (1974), in ''Education for Critical Consciousness'' (Bloomsbury Academic Press: 2021), p. 89
* Knowing is the task of Subjects, not of objects. It is as a subject, and only as such, that a man or woman can really know. In the learning process the only person who really learns is s/he who appropriates what is learned, who apprehends and thereby re-invents that learning; s/he who is able to apply the appropriated learning to concrete existential situations. On the other hand, the person who is filled by another with "contents" whose meaning s/he is not aware of, which contradict his or her way of being in the world, cannot learn because s/he is not challenged.
** [[Paulo Freire]], ''Extension or Communication'' (1974), in ''Education for Critical Consciousness'' (Bloomsbury Academic Press: 2021), p. 89
* The best student in physics or mathematics, at school or university, is not one who memorizes formulae but one who is aware of the reason for them. For students, the more simply and docilely they receive the contents with which their teachers "fill" them in the name of knowledge, the less they are able to think and the more they become merely repetitive. The best philosophy student is not one who discourses, "[[w:Ipsissima verba|ipsis verbis]]," on the philosophy of Plato, Marx, or Kant but one who thinks critically about their ideas and takes the risk of thinking too.
** [[Paulo Freire]], ''Extension or Communication'' (1974), in ''Education for Critical Consciousness'' (Bloomsbury Academic Press: 2021), p. 109
* Various attempts have been made in recent years to state necessary and sufficient conditions for someone's knowing a given proposition. The attempts have often been such that they can be stated in a form similar to the following:<br> (a) S knows that P IFF (i) P is true, (ii) S believes that P, and (iii) S is justified in believing that P.<br>... These ... examples show that definition (a) does not state a sufficient condition for someone's knowing a given proposition.
Line 775 ⟶ 808:
[[File:Friedrich Hayek portrait.jpg|thumb|{{center|''No [[human]] [[mind]] can comprehend all the knowledge which guides the actions of [[society]].''<br> - [[Friedrich Hayek]], 1960}}]]
[[File:Karl Popper2.jpg|thumb|{{center|''The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, specific, and articulate will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our knowledge of our ignorance''<br> - [[Karl Popper]], 1963}}]]
* '''I hold that every bit of definite knowledge has to have a mathematical aspect'''
* Charles Hartshorne, "Charles Hartshorne, Philosophy," in interview with Steven Vita, ''Veery'' journal (1996)
Line 784 ⟶ 816:
* Civilization enables us constantly to profit from knowledge which we individually do not possess and because each individual's use of his particular knowledge may serve to assist others unknown to him in achieving their ends that men as members of civilized society can pursue their individual ends so much more successfully than they could alone.
** [[Friedrich Hayek]] (1960) ''The Constitution of Liberty''.
[[File:Berkeley glade afternoon.jpg|thumb|Knowledge, not hate, is the passkey to the future. ~ [[John F. Kennedy]] ]]
[[File:Peace dove (3329620077).jpg|thumb|And cooperation in the pursuit of knowledge can hopefully lead to cooperation in the pursuit of peace. ~ [[John F. Kennedy]] ]]
[[File:UCB Doe Memorial Library oblique view dllu.jpg|thumb|No one can doubt that cooperation in the pursuit of knowledge must lead to freedom of the mind and freedom of the soul. ~ [[John F. Kennedy]] ]]
[[File:Berkeley T-rex - Flickr - Joe Parks.jpg|thumb|Every great age is marked by innovation and daring--by the ability to meet unprecedented problems with intelligent solutions. In a time of turbulence and change, it is more true than ever that knowledge is power; for only by true understanding and steadfast judgment are we able to master the challenge of history. ~ [[John F. Kennedy]] ]]
* But history may well remember this as a week for an act of lesser immediate impact, and that is '''the decision by the United States and the Soviet Union to seek concrete agreements on the joint exploration of space. Experience has taught us that an agreement to negotiate does not always mean a negotiated agreement. But should such a joint effort be realized, its significance could well be tremendous for us all. In terms of space science, our combined knowledge and efforts can benefit the people of all the nations: joint weather satellites to provide more ample warnings against destructive storms--joint communications systems to draw the world more closely together--and cooperation in space medicine research and space tracking operations to speed the day when man will go to the moon and beyond. But the scientific gains from such a joint effort would offer, I believe, less realized returns than the gains for world peace. For a cooperative Soviet-American effort in space science and exploration would emphasize the interests that must unite us, rather than those that always divide us. It offers us an area in which the stale and sterile dogmas of the cold war could be literally left a quarter of a million miles behind. And it would remind us on both sides that knowledge, not hate, is the passkey to the future--that knowledge transcends national antagonisms--that it speaks a universal language--that it is the possession not of a single class, or of a single nation or a single ideology, but of all mankind.'''
** [[John F. Kennedy]], Address at the University of California at Berkeley (March 23, 1962). Delivered at Memorial Stadium at the University of California in Berkeley, California. Source: Address at the University of California at Berkeley, March 23, 1962. Boston: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240624192125/https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/university-of-california-berkeley-19620323 Archived] [http://From from] [https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/university-of-california-berkeley-19620323 the original] on June 24, 2024.
* '''We may be proud as a nation of our record in scientific achievement--but at the same time we must be impressed by the interdependence of all knowledge. I am certain that every scholar and scientist here today would agree that his own work has benefited immeasurably from the work of the men and women in other countries.''' The prospect of a partnership with Soviet scientists in the exploration of space opens up exciting prospects of collaboration in other areas of learning. '''And cooperation in the pursuit of knowledge can hopefully lead to cooperation in the pursuit of peace.'''
** [[John F. Kennedy]], Address at the University of California at Berkeley (March 23, 1962). Delivered at Memorial Stadium at the University of California in Berkeley, California. Source: Address at the University of California at Berkeley, March 23, 1962. Boston: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240624192125/https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/university-of-california-berkeley-19620323 Archived] [http://From from] [https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/university-of-california-berkeley-19620323 the original] on June 24, 2024.
* '''No one who examines the modern world can doubt that the great currents of history are carrying the world away from the monolithic idea towards the pluralistic idea--away from communism and towards national independence and freedom. No one can doubt that the wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men. No one can doubt that cooperation in the pursuit of knowledge must lead to freedom of the mind and freedom of the soul.'''
** [[John F. Kennedy]], Address at the University of California at Berkeley (March 23, 1962). Delivered at Memorial Stadium at the University of California in Berkeley, California. Source: Address at the University of California at Berkeley, March 23, 1962. Boston: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240624192125/https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/university-of-california-berkeley-19620323 Archived] [http://From from] [https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/university-of-california-berkeley-19620323 the original] on June 24, 2024.
* '''Beyond the drumfire of daily crisis''', therefore, '''there is arising the outlines of a robust and vital world community, founded on nations secure in their own independence, and united by their allegiance to world peace. It would be foolish to say that this world will be won tomorrow, or the day after. The processes of history are fitful and uncertain and aggravating. There will be frustrations and setbacks. There will be times of anxiety and gloom. The specter of thermonuclear war will continue to hang over mankind; and we must heed the advice of [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.|Oliver Wendell Holmes]] of "freedom leaning on her spear" until all nations are wise enough to disarm safely and effectively. Yet we can have a new confidence today in the direction in which history is moving. Nothing is more stirring than the recognition of great public purpose. Every great age is marked by innovation and daring--by the ability to meet unprecedented problems with intelligent solutions. In a time of turbulence and change, it is more true than ever that knowledge is power; for only by true understanding and steadfast judgment are we able to master the challenge of history.'''
** [[John F. Kennedy]], Address at the University of California at Berkeley (March 23, 1962). Delivered at Memorial Stadium at the University of California in Berkeley, California. Source: Address at the University of California at Berkeley, March 23, 1962. Boston: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum. [https://web.archive.org/web/20240624192125/https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/university-of-california-berkeley-19620323 Archived] [http://From from] [https://www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-speeches/university-of-california-berkeley-19620323 the original] on June 24, 2024.
* '''All types of knowledge, ultimately mean [[self]] knowledge.'''
** [[Bruce Lee]], ''Bruce Lee: The Lost Interview'' (1971).
* When I speak of knowledge, as you know, I am speaking of that dark and true depth which understanding serves, waits upon, and makes accessible through language to ourselves and others. It is this depth within each of us that nurtures vision.
** [[Audre Lorde]] to [[Mary Daly]], {{cite book |title={{w|Sister Outsider}}: Essays and Speeches |date=1984 |publisher=Crossing Press |isbn=978-0-89594-142-8 |page=68}}
* Man's knowledge makes another leap through the test of practice. This leap is more important than the previous one. For it is this leap alone that can prove the correctness or incorrectness of the first leap in cognition, i.e., of the ideas, theories, policies, plans or measures formulated in the course of reflecting the objective external world. There is no other way of testing truth. Furthermore, the one and only purpose of the proletariat in knowing the world is to change it. Often, correct knowledge can be arrived at only after many repetitions of the process leading from matter to consciousness and then back to matter, that is, leading from practice to knowledge and then back to practice.
** [[Mao Zedong]], "Where Do Correct Ideas Come From?" (May 1963)
* I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
Line 820 ⟶ 875:
* '''[[Ideas]] are everywhere, but knowledge is rare.'''
** [[Thomas Sowell]], ''{{w|Knowledge and Decisions}}'' (1980), Ch. 1 : The Role of Knowledge
* Genes embody knowledge about their niches. Everything of fundamental significance about the phenomenon of life depends on this property, and not on replication per se.
** [[David Deutsch]], ''{{w|The Fabric of Reality}}'' (1997), Ch. 8: The Significance of Life
*'''Knowledge is in the end based on acknowledgement.'''
Line 840 ⟶ 898:
* In Western society... [t]here are no more continents... little left to discover. I am, in part, an ant biologist... and I knew that much of the world of insects remains unknown. ...How ignorant are we? The question of what we know and do not know clung to me. ...In looking into the stories of biological discovery, I... began to find... a collection of scientists, often obsessive, usually brilliant, occasionally half-mad... Those individuals very often see the same things that other scientists see, but they pay more attention... and they focus on them to the point of exhaustion, and at the risk of the ridicule of their peers. ...[W]e are, before these discoveries, always more ignorant than we imagine ourselves to be. ...[W]e are repeatedly willing to imagine we have found most of what is left to discover. Before microbes were discovered, scientists were confident that insects were the smallest organisms. Before life was discovered at the bottom of the ocean, many scientists were confident that nothing lived deeper than three hundred fathoms. Once we made a tree of life that included four kingdoms (animals, plants, fungi, and {{w|prokaryote}}s), we were confident that there would be no more major branches to reveal. ...We are again at a stage when we believe we have found most of what might be found, but we are wrong. ...[W]hole realms of life remain to be found. ...And even before a new realm or kind of life is found, we still have to explore the realms we have already discovered. Most species on Earth are not yet named. Most named species have not yet been studied. When we lived in small communities, hunting and gathering, we knew only the animals and plants around us, particularly those... useful or dangerous. Living on the thin green surface of our small planet in a universe full of stars, we are not so different today. The wild leaps up and more often than not we do not event know its name.
** [[w:Robert Dunn (biologist)|Robert Dunn]], ''Every Living Thing: Man's Obsessive Quest to Catalogue Life, from Nanobacteria to New Monkeys'' (2009) Introduction.
*fortunately, in our time, we've learned more about the problems than in all preceding history. And with knowing comes caring.
**[[Sylvia Earle]] "My wish: Protect our oceans" (2009 [[TED talk]])
*Knowledge is the superpower of the 21st century. Even the smartest people alive when I was born did not know what 10-year-olds today have available to them. That’s truly cause for [[hope]].
**[[Sylvia Earle]] [https://time.com/6114248/sylvia-earle-10-questions/ Interview] with Time (2021)
* What we call knowledge does not and cannot have the purpose of producing representations of an independent reality, but instead has an adaptive function.
** [[Ernst von Glasersfeld]], cited in Fox (2001, p. 27).
* Our brains are really not equipped to process events on the geologic scale—at least in reference to how we choose to live, or what we choose to do in the here and now.
** [[James Howard Kunstler]], ''The Long Emergency'' (2005).
* As [[Immanuel_Kant#Critique_of_Pure_Reason_.281781.3B_1787.29|Immanuel Kant]] pointed out long ago, learning to learn is one of the things that we cannot learn from experience. [see Kant 18th century quote above on ''à priori'' and ''à posteriori'' knowledge] ...So although sensations give us "occasions" to learn, this cannot be what makes us "able", to learn, because we first must have the additional knowledge that our brains would need, as Kant has said, to "produce representations" and then "to connect" them. Such additional knowledge would also include inborn ways to recognize correlations and other relations among sensations. I suspect that... our brains are already innately endowed with machinery to help us "to compare, to connect, or to separate" objects so that we can represent them as existing in space.
Line 852 ⟶ 919:
* '''May I free myself from the labyrinth of knowledge'''
** [[Suman Pokhrel]], <span class="plainlinks">[http://lifeandlegends.com/suman-pokhrel-translated-by-abhi-subedhi/ Song of Soul] </span><br>
*The importance of knowing nothing is underrated.
** Sarah Ruhl, "On Knowing," ''100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write (2014)
* As we know, There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know, there are known unknowns, that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we do not know we do not know.
Line 858 ⟶ 928:
* I draw [a] distinction between knowledge and information. You can find information online very easily. Knowledge is another matter altogether. Now, this is not something new about the Internet [but] a basic feature of human life that while information is easy, knowledge is difficult. There has never been a shortage of mere data and opinion in human life. It’s a very old observation that the most ignorant people are usually full of opinions, while many of the most knowledgeable people are full of doubt. Other people are certainly sources of knowledge, but they are also sources of half-truths, confusion, misinformation, and lies. If we simply want information from others, it is easy to get; if we want knowledge in any strong sense of the word, it is very difficult.
** [[Larry Sanger]], [http://www.larrysanger.org/hownetchangesknowledge.html How the Internet Is Changing What We (Think We) Know], from a speech in Upper Arlington Public Library (23 January 2008)
* The acquisition of knowledge is the [[voyage]] of humanity, isn't it?
** [[William Shatner]], {{cite web|title=William Shatner And Lawrence Krauss Go To School|date=April 28, 2023
|website=YouTube|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTKQ8JlXkcA&t=3986}} (quote at 1:06:26 of 1:34:32 in video; The Origins Podcast with [[Lawrence Krauss]])
* [[Game theory|[G]ame theory]] has already established itself as an essential tool in the {{w|behavioral sciences}}, where it is widely regarded as a unifying language for investigating human behavior. Game theory's prominence in [[Evolution|evolutionary biology]] builds a natural bridge between the life sciences and the behavioral sciences. And connections have been established between game theory and the two most prominent pillars of physics: {{w|statistical mechanics}} and [[Quantum mechanics|quantum theory]]. ...[M]any physicists, neuroscientists, and social scientists... are... pursuing the dream of a quantitative science of human behavior. Game theory is showing signs of... an increasing[ly] important role in that endeavor. '''It's a story of exploration along the shoreline separating the continent of knowledge from an ocean of ignorance... a story worth telling.'''
** Tom Siegfried, ''A Beautiful Math: John Nash, Game Theory, and the Modern Quest for a Code of Nature'' (2006) Preface
* The knowable world is incomplete if seen from any one point of view, incoherent if seen from all points of view at once, and empty if seen from nowhere in particular.
Line 865 ⟶ 942:
** [[Thomas Sowell]], ''Basic Economics'' (2010), Ch. 2. The Role of Prices
* Academia is to knowledge [of] what prostitution is to love.
** [[Nassim Nicholas Taleb]], ''The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms'' (2010) Preludes, p.4.
Line 871 ⟶ 948:
** [[Nassim Nicholas Taleb]], ''The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms'' (2010) The Universal and the Particular, p. 56.
*Knowledge is the key to every door in your life.
**[[Chaitanya Sai Meka]]
== Proverbs ==
* He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a [[Fools|fool]]. Shun him. <br /> He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is [[Simplicity|simple]]. Teach him. <br /> He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is [[Sleep|asleep]]. Wake him. <br /> He who knows, and knows that he knows, is [[Wisdom|wise]]. Follow him.
Line 876 ⟶ 955:
* Men are four:<br>He who knows not and knows not he knows not, he is a fool—shun him;<br>He who knows not and knows he knows not, he is simple—teach him;<br>He who knows and knows not he knows, he is asleep—wake him;<br>He who knows and knows he knows, he is wise—follow him!
** Lady Burton, ''Life of Sir Richard Burton''. Given as an Arabian Proverb. Another rendering in the ''Spectator'' (Aug. 11, 1894), p. 176. In [[Hesiod]], ''Works and Days'', 293. 7. Quoted by [[Aristotle]], ''Nicomachean Ethics'' (c. 325 BC)
* There are four kinds of people, three of which are to be avoided and the fourth cultivated: those who don't know that they don't know; those who know that they don't know; those who don't know that they know; and those who know that they know.
| |||